Sox need to make a statement

Tonight's opener against the Rays continues a run of 23 consecutive games against teams either equal to or ahead of them in the standings.

JON COUTURE

I have, by and large, tried to stay optimistic about these Red Sox.

Relatively, of course. Coming off two playoff-free years and carrying the game's third-largest payroll, the team is where it's been most of the season: last in the AL East.

There have been injuries. There have been bad breaks and a new manager.

The reinforcements are coming. Most importantly, baseball's pursuit of ticket sales and TV ratings keep the mediocre in the mix by design. If an 86-win team can reasonably play for the World Series, what Red Sox fan would argue?

That's old news, though. At some point, every contending team must prove what it is. And these Red Sox are at that precipice.

Tonight's opener against the Rays continues a run — begun with losing three of four to New York in ghastly fashion — of 23 consecutive games against teams either equal to or ahead of them in the standings. The Sox play their first three at Yankee Stadium, their first three at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and four against the AL Central-leading White Sox.

Those, however, only get them to the trade deadline. August includes three more with the Rangers and a three-city road trip ending in the Bronx.

That's followed by six meetings with the Angels in 10 days, the latter three the start of a three-city West Coast trip to begin September. Then a conclusion of 24 straight within the AL East, a group against which the Sox are just 14-19.

Not many breaks for air, but a run that will leave little question if this team is worth a thing. The 2004 team was 50-26 after the All-Star Game, far and away the AL's best. The 2007 team was the league's finest before the break, then coasted to October before their longest win streak of the year ended with the World Series trophy in their hands.

The 2012 Sox aren't out of it. It's impossible to say just how much they'll have to show to be in it. But a statement is needed. Not just for 2012, but for beyond.

And pardon me if it's growing harder to imagine this group making it.

Numbers are increasingly digestible however you'd like, but one leapt out as I dug during the break: 12. First, as in 9-12, Boston's record in one-run games. Certainly not good, but not ridiculous. It's how they got to that mark that surprised.

Six of the losses can be traced to Alfredo Aceves, a disastrous performance from one of the few members of the 'season-saving' bullpen with an established track record. And, excluding the 13-12 loss in Detroit on the opening Sunday, the Sox — whose plus-43 run differential is among the AL's better totals — have scored 19 runs total in their one-run losses.

Even a mediocre performance with the bats in those 11 games changes everything. The season, the outlook, the narrative.

Which leads to the other 12. Consider that aforementioned payroll, and consider the 12 highest-paid players on the team when the season began:

Ortiz has been better than almost anyone — other than Ortiz himself — could have dreamed. But who among the rest has come close to even being average, never mind elite?

Half those names have, for multiple reasons, provided essentially zero. We could debate Beckett — dominant at times and done in repeatedly by poor run support, but prone to blowups. Lester fired off an unprintable when assessing his first half on Sunday night. Pedroia's battled thumb problems, but he was hardly tearing the world up before they began.

Gonzalez, for all that could be said, does have 27 doubles. Just so happens 19 have been at doubles-happy Fenway. Away from home, he has two home runs and is slugging .362. Ted Williams topped that and still demanded a pay cut the following year.

Not only is that list integral to this season becoming anything worth a happy memory, a couple of those are long-term lynchpins. Gonzalez is owed another $127 million after this season. Crawford's due $102.5M. When the checks were written two winters ago, it was written that these would be the men who'd dominate the story of the Red Sox deep into the decade.

That was largely a compliment, as they appeared more than up to the task.

Now, Gonzalez has underperformed for a full-year's worth of games and Crawford is all but assured of going into Year 3 without much of a positive contribution. (And that's if dawdling to get Tommy John surgery he apparently needs doesn't render him unavailable for the start of 2013.) Optimism should not be high with these Red Sox, not with the track record of the bodies assembled before us and the talk of dysfunction within the team's operating structure.

They do, however, have the means to shut us all up in the coming weeks.

Multiple players have maligned the negativity around these parts in recent days. They know as well as anyone how to stop it.

Opportunity knocks, boys.

Jon Couture covers the Red Sox for The Standard-Times. Contact him at jon.couture@bostonherald.com, or through 'Better Red Than Dead' at Blogs.SouthCoastToday.com/red-sox

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